What a difference a year doesn't make! Or maybe that snow part's new for 2012?

Surely it's a good thing that Luigi's Mansion 2 Dark Moon has very deep 3D effects, lets you suck up ghosts with a vacuum and manages to control pretty well despite the 3DS lacking a second analog circle pad. (You move and aim simultaneously with the left circle pad and use the top and bottom face buttons to tilt the vacuum up and down.)

Advertisement

I had missed the game at this year's E3 but played it yesterday in New York. I was pleased, as I was with New Super Mario Bros. 2 at an even briefer play-through of that game at E3. Nintendo's flagship 2012 3DS games don't feel like radical deviations from the games that preceded them, but they feel like well-made successors with familiar, yet specific gameplay.

It's been too long (11 years) since we got to play as a frightened Luigi in a mansion full of ghosts. Dark Moon will let us do it again this year through a series of mansions. I was impressed. Just release the game, already, Nintendo. Surely you're not going to bring the same demo to a third E3? Hopefully not. The game is currently slated for a late 2012 release.